


My Shoulders are Small (But You Can Cry on Them, Too)

by Rosie2009



Series: The Chronicles of Chlodine's Friendship [2]
Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Comfort/Angst, Female Friendship, Friendship, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:41:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27296578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosie2009/pseuds/Rosie2009
Summary: Chloe keeps endangering her life, and after one extremely close shave, Nadine finds she can't take it any more. Confessions are made and friendships are strengthened. Platonic/friendship feels with Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross.
Relationships: Chloe Frazer & Nadine Ross
Series: The Chronicles of Chlodine's Friendship [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1988830
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	My Shoulders are Small (But You Can Cry on Them, Too)

“Whoo! That was like some kind of crazy trust exercise,” Chloe chuckled breathlessly, her arm wrapped around Nadine’s waist tightly as the South African clung to the rope that they had just used to barely swing to safety. Nadine’s eyes widened as she immediately looked at the Australian.

“I barely catch you after you fall from a fifty-foot drop, and that’s what you have to say about it?!” Nadine disbelievingly spoke, staring at the other woman. Chloe’s grin slightly faded as she looked at Nadine.

“Oh… Did you want a thank you?” Chloe questioned somewhat teasingly but not insincerely, offering Nadine an affectionate squeeze before letting her best friend go. Nadine shook her head incredulously, unable to believe the other woman. It purely shocked Nadine that the slightly older woman could actually act so nonchalant about the entire experience even though she nearly died.

The two had been doing a job in the outback of Australia, and, as their luck so often seemed to be, they had run into Shoreline. It was as if the company was tracking them, and inevitably they had a confrontation atop a cliff from which Chloe had ended up falling and Nadine had to quite literally swoop in and save her.

And Nadine might not have ordinarily been quite so upset about the endangerment of Chloe’s life, but it seemed that this trip had been especially life-threatening for the Australian woman, and she was somehow even more reckless than usual.

Which naturally left Nadine exceedingly stressed and in a very bad mood.

“You can’t keep doing this, Frazer!” Nadine informed her, and Chloe stepped back a bit, visibly unhappy with Nadine’s return to that name.

“Back to that, eh, love?” Chloe questioned, wincing a bit as she clutched a hand to her side where a bullet had happened to graze her, and Nadine felt the anger rising in her, her muscles tensing as she glared at Chloe. However, she was unable to help the small flit of her gaze toward the Australian’s side.

“You deserve it! And don’t you dare act innocent!” Nadine snapped in pure irritation. Chloe raised her hands in defense, keeping that same frustratingly carefree manner to her that she always possessed despite the direness or the levity of the situation.

“But, china, you know that’s my specialty,” Chloe commented, and Nadine felt her chest twist with that silly, fond nickname that Chloe had taken up during their Tusk of Ganesh trip. What if Nadine would have never gotten to hear that name again? What if Nadine would have never gotten to hear that silly, playful voice that she had come to love so much?

Chloe was her best and only friend, and Nadine loved her dearly. People often made assumptions about the nature of their relationship, and while they were very close, they were never close in the manner that many guessed. They did not feel anything even slightly in the range of romantic toward one another. Sure, they shared a bed when necessary, and they were exceedingly comfortable with one another, but it was the beauty of their relationship.

They were soulmates without the romance, and they loved each other deeply in a manner that somehow connected sisterhood in comfortableness and friendship in camaraderie.

Which was why Nadine found herself aching and nearly having a panic attack at the thought of losing the one person in the whole entire world that always understood and loved her as she was and that she could share everything with.

“No, no, you know what’s your specialty? Idiocrasy!” Nadine shouted, throwing a hand up in the air as she gestured toward Chloe in pure irritation. Chloe visibly recoiled, and Nadine actually noted the hurt in the other woman’s gaze. However, despite the guilt that was now prickling at Nadine’s heart, she persisted in her attack. Chloe needed to know that she was going to have to stop this recklessness.

For both her own sake and Nadine’s.

“You keep doing these things, Frazer, and honestly I can’t take it!” Nadine yelled, her voice ringing through the wilderness around them, and Chloe’s gray-blue eyes were trained upon her own in one of the woman’s very rare moments of silence.

“And for what?! The next paycheck?! Some adrenaline rush?! Some mental problem?!” Nadine demanded, furrowing her brow as she stared at Chloe for a long moment, staying silent as she breathed hard with her frustration. Chloe opened her mouth, starting to say something in reply, but Nadine continued in her rant.

“You’re going to die one of these days, and I’m not going to be able to do anything about it! No one will be able to!” Nadine raged, feeling the tears creeping upon her as she tried valiantly to fight them off.

“Nadine, what’s brought this on?”

“What’s brought this on?! Incredible… You are absolutely incredible, Chloe Frazer!” Nadine yelled, doing everything she could to keep her voice from cracking but failing in this effort mid-sentence.

“You keep trying to kill yourself! Every turn we take, every dangerous situation we get into, instead of doing the logical thing, you go and act like some raving lunatic and nose-dive into the most life-endangering part of the whole scenario!!!” Nadine roared, and Chloe just watched Nadine silently. Nadine shook her head in pure aggravation, finally feeling it all overcome her as she shouted the final thing that she had to say about it all.

“Do you have any idea what you mean to me?! I can’t lose you, too!” Nadine yelled, knowing that the tears had now shown themselves. She ashamedly and angrily looked down at the ground nearby them, her pride keeping her from meeting Chloe’s eyes. She knew what she’d find in them. Likely some sort of pity or disbelief or guilt.

She could see Chloe approaching in her peripheral vision. However, she stubbornly refused to look at the Australian. Chloe stopped just in front of her and she reached out her hand, touching Nadine’s arm gently.

“Nadine, look at me,” Chloe quietly told her. Somehow, something in the other woman’s voice got Nadine’s attention and made her look at Chloe before she exactly knew what happened, her tears hot in her eyes and her head dipped as she tried to control herself.

To her complete surprise, all that was in Chloe’s gaze was understanding. Sure, there was some guilt there and some surprise even, but there was predominantly understanding.

Chloe hesitantly reached out, placing her free hand on Nadine’s other arm and Nadine just watched her, trying to figure out what she was doing. Chloe huffed a bit, shaking her head as she let her chin fall to her chest. She then looked back up at Nadine with a smile mixed with humor and sadness.

“You do realize I’m trying to get the guts up to hug you, but I don’t know if we’re there yet, right?” Chloe questioned. The pure sincerity in Chloe’s voice stabbed Nadine’s heart like a knife, and she felt her bottom lip quivering a bit with the touching nature of the statement and the attempted gesture itself. Nadine wasted no time in grabbing Chloe almost aggressively, hugging her tightly. Chloe wasted no time in wrapping her arms around the former mercenary as Nadine finally let herself break down.

“Sh, sh, sh, sh, Nadine, it’s okay,” Chloe quietly told her, that low, rumbling voice coming out in comforting tones, and Nadine shook her head in some expression of childish petulance.

“It is not okay,” Nadine sobbed, baring her teeth at the sound and tightening her grip on Chloe.

“You’re shaking. Calm down,” Chloe reassured, patting Nadine’s back and hugging her firmly but gently. Nadine noticed that she was indeed shaking, but despite her best efforts, she could not bring it to a halt. Instead, she just squeezed Chloe harder against her, needing some sort of anchorage in the midst of this topsy-turvy emotional rollercoaster.

“It’s alright, I’m okay. I wasn’t that close to death.”

“That’s bull---”

“I know, but just listen to it and believe it. I’m alive right now, aren’t I?” Chloe asked, and despite the snippiness of her words, her voice was warm as could be.

“Because of me,” Nadine answered immediately, and Chloe was silent for a moment before nodding and agreeing with the South African.

“Yes. Because of you. And you see, that’s the beauty of our relationship, love. You’ll always be there to make sure I don’t kill myself,” Chloe replied, using Nadine’s own words against her.

“What about when I’m not?” Nadine couldn’t help but retort wetly, her voice rougher than usual as she ground the words out. Chloe chuckled lightly.

“Well, I’ll improvise. It always worked before,” Chloe somewhat cockily told her, but it was such a Chloe-esque statement that Nadine found it was significantly more comforting than irritating.

“Chloe, I,” Nadine paused, but Chloe kept up the steady, calming circles that she was rubbing against the former mercenary’s back, almost as if she were silently telling Nadine to continue. Nadine finally sighed. “You really scare me sometimes.”

“That’s a new effect that I have on people. Going to have to jot that one down in the old notebook, yeah?” Chloe gently teased, but Nadine knew she was listening and taking her seriously.

“How can you be so confident that I’ll be there to keep you from dying? I’ve lost everything important to me on my watch, Chloe. It’s… It’s just a matter of time before I lose you on my watch, too,” Nadine admitted, suddenly feeling very, very naked as she confessed what was practically her greatest fear.

Chloe was quiet for a long moment, just quietly contemplating Nadine’s words as they stood there together. Finally, after what felt like forever, Chloe started to speak once again.

“China, one of the most valuable things that I’ve learned over time is that things happen. Things you can’t control, and things that are usually crappy given the fickle finger of fate’s unlimited outreach,” Chloe explained, and Nadine quieted herself, the hot tears still running down her face as she held onto Chloe and listened to her carefully.

“If things turn and I’m lost on your watch, it’s life, and not you. If things turn and you’re lost on my watch, it’s life, and not me. If you do everything you can to look out for someone, you’re not at fault,” Chloe told her, and Nadine nodded, despite her actual feelings on the subject. While Nadine could see from a logical standpoint that Chloe was right, she also saw and felt the more irrational parts of human nature and how both of them would definitely feel guilty if they lost the other right in front of them.

“Please don’t worry. It’s all okay now, alright? I didn’t die, you saved me, and we’re both doing fine, right?” Chloe told her, and Nadine nodded, trying to get some semblance of steadiness back to her.

“Right. If you don’t kill yourself in just a minute,” Nadine agreed wryly, chuckling wetly as she tried to conjure at least a little of a laugh, and she could feel Chloe’s face twist into a grin.

“That’s the spirit,” Chloe and they just stood there for a long moment, hugging each other for a long moment despite the fact that they had fixed everything.

However, after a long moment, Chloe spoke up finally.

“Mmm… This is really nice, but um… You don’t happen to have some bandages on you, do you?” Chloe inquired, finally letting the slightest bit of strain enter her voice, and Nadine immediately released her, realizing that she had been very tightly squeezing that place on Chloe’s side where the bullet had grazed her.

“Oh! Sorry!” Nadine exclaimed in horror, and Chloe chuckled, quite obviously trying to put away her pain so that she would not concern the former mercenary despite the fact that Nadine could easily see through it.

“No, no. Don’t worry. I’m perfectly fine. After all, a little pain reminds you that you’re alive, yeah?” Chloe playfully spoke, and Nadine chuckled, sniffing hard as she tried to get ahold of herself. She was extremely ashamed of herself for falling apart as she had, but she was very thankful that Chloe did not seem to view her any less than before. In fact, Chloe had a gleam of admiration and awe in her eyes, and Nadine was quite honestly not sure what to make of that.

After a moment, Chloe bit her bottom lip, looking down at the ground before looking back up at Nadine with a slight smile.

“Y’know, I’m not good with this whole people thing,” Chloe chuckled slightly before quieting for a moment and closing her eyes. She then cleared her throat, her eyes boring holes into Nadine’s. “But, um… For you… I want to try… I’ll… I’ll try not to worry you as much from now on.”

“You better not. I’ll have to bloody your nose again,” Nadine tried to joke but immediately regretted it, worried that she might have touched a nerve or sounded too serious with her threat. However, Chloe did not seem bothered by it in the least, and even chuckled in reply.

“Of course. Actually, it’s that memory that makes me heavily respect you and your capabilities,” Chloe commented nonchalantly, and Nadine raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, yeah?” Nadine questioned, wiping her cheek a little from the wetness still lingering.

“Yeah. That’s why you’re still running with me, you see. If that was holding back, then I’d hate to see all-out,” Chloe grinned widely, and Nadine actually felt a full laugh bubbling within her. It felt really good to finally let loose with such a freeing emotion, and when Chloe joined her, it felt even better.

And for at least a moment, all in the world was perfect.


End file.
